Dirk Nowitzki: Letting free agents go after 2011 title season ‘was the right decision’

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Illustration by CHRIS MORRIS / Special Contributor

Dirk's sister said it’s clear to her that the Mavericks’ championship season of 2011 had a huge impact on Nowitzki, which some may not realize. “Ever since he won the championship, I started to notice a change in him,” Silke said. “It’s like there’s a lot of pressure off of him. He’s more relaxed. We can even occasionally talk about other things during the basketball season besides basketball.”

Dirk Nowitzki was originally not pleased when the Dallas Mavericks were unable to retain players like Tyson Chandler after the club won a title in 2011.

On Thursday, Nowitzki said on 103.3′s Fitzsimmons & Durrett show [KESN-FM] that he can now see the big picture and understands the difficulty team owner Mark Cuban faced when trying to keep that group together.

“You’d wish we had a chance, but it’s unfortunate that the year we won it, we had so many free agents,” Nowitzki said. “When you win it, we all know that your market value goes up by three or four times. That’s what happened. … It didn’t really matter. I would’ve loved it [if it was like baseball], sign everybody and if it doesn’t work then sign more people. I would’ve loved to see what would’ve happened.”

Nowitzki even added: “I think it was the right decision, now looking back at it.”

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